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How Windows Users Are Changing Linux And What We Should Do About It

"But we see that Windows users are having an impact on the Linux
community that we may not have anticipated. Windows users aren't
used to choice. For them the array of choices that Linux presents
is confusing.

"Let's start with the number of distros. How to begin to choose?
Everyone has an opinion, but what are you to believe. So they go by
heresay or popularity. They may want to try Fedora because they
know that it comes from Red Hat and they have heard that Red Hat is
big in Linux (servers, but they don't know the difference). They
don’t realize that Fedora is not a newbie distro and no
amount of arguing will convince them. Worse still are the ones that
have an old copy of Red Hat itself and they want to use it on an
old desktop computer and expect it to function like they have heard
Linux is, modern and user friendly. Then there is Ubuntu. They use
it because it is the one that most people are using. It is not
surprising that our forums are full of confusion and in many cases
frustration.

"So here is what I see as the problem. This frustration and
confusion causes Windows users to say that Linux should be more
like Windows. They want to remove choice and want to see
standardization. Worse still, a small percentage wants to change
Linux so that it is more like Windows. And we need to be prepared
to address those statements and to protect what is unique about
Linux."